June 5, 2002: Books Received
By Alumni
Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure — Alexander Wolff ’79. Warner $24.95. Visiting 16 countries and 10 states, the author explores how this American-born sport seems to obsess everyone from Kansas to Bhutan. Wolff is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated and lives in Vermont.
Modernist Fiction, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Commodity — Jessica Berman ’83. Cambridge $59.95. The author argues that the fiction of Henry James, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Gertrude Stein engages directly with early 20th-century transformations of community and cosmopolitanism. Berman is also the editor of Virginia Woolf Out of Bounds: Selected Papers From the Tenth Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf (Pace $40). Berman is an associate professor of English and women’s studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology — Bill Rosenblatt ’83 et al. M&T $29.99. Explains DRM antecedents, paradigms, and legal foundations, and offers a guide to DRM technologies and standards together with practical advice on products, services, and vendors. Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies in New York City.
E-Mail Etiquette: Do’s, Don’ts, and Disaster Tales — Samantha Miller ’95. Warner $12.95. Includes strategies for composing personal and business e-mail, practical advice about privacy and junk e-mail, and tips on how to guard against Net dangers. This book grew out of the author’s “Internet Manners” column that appears on the Web site People.com. Miller lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions — Bruce M. Metzger *42. Baker $14.99. Explores the circumstances under which 50 biblical translations were produced and offers insights into the underlying objectives, characteristics, and strengths of each. Metzger is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton Theological Seminary.
An American Poet in Paris: Pauline Avery Crawford and the Herald Tribune — Charles L. Robertson *59. Missouri $34.95. A literary biography of the American expatriate who wrote for the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune in the 1930s and 1940s. Robertson is a professor, emeritus, of government at Smith.
The Jewish Lights Spirituality Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Exploring & Living a Spiritual Life — edited by Stuart M. Matlins *62. Jewish Lights $24.95. The contributors explore multiple aspects of Jewish spirituality, including God, community, prayer, meditation, mysticism, and traditions. Matlins is editor-in-chief and publisher at Jewish Lights Publishing in Woodstock, Vermont.
Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural — Ronald C. White, Jr. *72. Simon & Schuster $24. Analyzes the content and context of Lincoln’s “malice toward none” speech and explains its continuing relevance. White is a dean and a professor of American religious history at San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing — Jane Margolis *79 and Allan Fisher ’78. MIT $24.95. Based on interviews with computer science students, classroom observations, and discussions with college and high school faculty, this book examines the familial, educational, and institutional origins of the gender gap in computing. Margolis is a researcher at the Graduate School of Education and Information Systems at UCLA. Fisher is president and CEO of Carnegie Technology Education.
Irreconcilable Differences? Explaining Czechoslovakia’s Dissolution — edited and translated by Michael Kraus *86 and Allison Stanger. Rowman & Littlefield $84 cloth/$27.95 paper. A multidisciplinary group of scholars together with Czech and Slovak decision-makers consider the problems of democratic transitions in multinational societies and ethnic separatism and its origins. Kraus is a professor and chair of political science at Middlebury.
Susan Glaspell in Context: American Theater, Culture, and Politics, 1915-48 — J. Ellen Gainor *88. Michigan $52.50. Explores the playwright’s dramatic work within its context: the worlds of Greenwich Village and Provincetown bohemia, of the American frontier, and of American modernism. Gainor is a professor of theater, women’s studies, and American studies at Cornell.
The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800 — David A. Bell *91. Harvard $45. Argues that while the French revolutionaries hoped that patriotism and national sentiment would replace religion as the new binding force in public life, the example of cultural remodeling they followed was that of the Catholic Church. Bell is a professor of history at Johns Hopkins.
Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens — Ryan K. Balot *93. Princeton $39.50. Integrating ancient philosophy, poetry, and history, and drawing on modern political thought, the author demonstrates that the Athenian discourse on greed was an essential component of Greek social development and political history. Balot is an assistant professor of classics at Washington University.
